What it do guys.

This story has received a surprising amount of support, and I'm sorry to dissappoint but I'll preface this by saying this chapter has a lot of kinda boring things and even a little fluff. But I promise that both the action and even the romance will start to pick up in the near future. Also I'm planning on adding something that might be controversial a little later on, but I think you guys'll like it. If not…

Sue me pt. 5 (pt. 4 happened at the end of last chapter lol)

Chapter 4: The Hunters and The Hunted

*Knock Knock Knock*

"That's probably him!" Sally Jackson chirped as she rose to answer the door.

Percy groaned. "I haven't even finished breakfast yet."

"You better hurry~"

Percy redoubled the attack on his blue pancakes, desperately trying to finish them in time.

The door swung open and Sasuke was met with the smiling face of Sally Jackson.

"Hello Sasuk-" She gasped as she noticed what he had in his arms.

Sasuke raised an eyebrow at the odd behavior. "Hello Ms. Ja-"

"OH SHE'S SO CUTE!" Sally squealed as she fawned over the child in Sasuke's arms, who immediately retreated into Sasuke's cloak, startled by the woman at the door.

Sasuke sighed and patted her head, but the girl refused to budge.

Sally gave him an apologetic smile. "Sorry." She whispered. "Is she yours?"

He shook his head.

"Well I'm sure it's a long story, why don't you come inside, Percy should be done eating breakfast." She waved him through the doorway and into the living room.

Sasuke walked over into the living room and sat down on the couch, glancing every so often to the child sized growth that had attached itself to him.

Sally sat down across from him and took a sip of coffee from the mug she had left on the table. "Are you babysitting?"

Sasuke resisted the twitch of his eyebrow. "I was asked to take her from her home."

"By who?"

"Her father."

Lilith's head poked out of his cloak at the mention of her unknown father. "You know my father?"

"I do."

"Are you going to bring me to him?" She asked, her expression neutral.

"No."

Lilith, satisfied with the answer and rehid herself inside of his cloak, however he'd have to refuse her this time. He looked out the window and found the sun had already risen, he was late.

Sasuke removed Lilith from his lap and placed her on the couch. "Stay here, I'll be back."

He got up to leave but a small hand gripped his fingers. "Do you promise?"

Onyx locked and held onyx, and even though her face remained unchanged, her eyes displayed a myriad of emotions.

"Yes."

She held both eye contact and onto his hand for a little while longer before letting go and settling on the couch.

Sally smiled and sat down next to the girl. "If you want I can make you some cookies?"

Lilith tilted her head to the side curiously. "Cookies?"

"Save me some!" Percy yelled from the other room.

"Only if you work hard!" She yelled back.

Percy walked in grumbling. "I'm pretty sure Sasuke wouldn't give me a choice."

Sasuke silently agreed.

"Percy!" His mother reprimanded. "He is your teacher! Call him Mr. Uchiha."

"I'd prefer that you didn't."

Sally frowned. "I'm not sure if I like Percy calling you by your first name, is there anything else he could call you?"

Sasuke was about to shake his head no, then the proverbial light bulb went over the Avenger's head, and he cracked a smirk.

"How'd I do Sensei?" Percy managed, panting from exertion.

"Slightly better than last time." He said bluntly. "You're a kinesthetic learner."

"What does that mean?"

"You're an idiot."

Ouch, but his grades and Annabeth had already told that story a thousand times.

"However you learn very well through actual combat." It was true, even a genius like Sasuke had to admit the boy was special. "The best instruction I can give you is hands on."

Percy groaned. "Does that mean you're just gonna beat me up every morning?"

"Hn." A faint smile appeared on his face.

Percy gulped and readied Anaklusmos once more.

Percy groaned and flopped onto the couch, falling asleep almost immediately.

Next to him was Sally, and on her lap was another sleeping demigod. She was using a hairbrush to slowly comb through the girl's long black hair while she let out soft snores every few seconds.

"How did he do?" Sally whispered, not wanting to wake up either of them.

"Better."

Sally smiled and reached over to pat her son's head. "Thank you for agreeing to teach him, I'm pretty sure it's the only thing keeping him out of a slump."

Sasuke nodded. "Despite his demeanor, he carries more sorrow than he realizes." And that feeling was all too familiar.

Her smile grew sad. "He made a promise to a young boy before his quest. He promised to bring his older sister back home alive."

She didn't finish the rest of the story, she didn't need to.

Sasuke looked at his student once more, and every time he did he realized the similarities between him and the idiot, only Percy was less abrasive and obnoxious. Sasuke could tell he was idealistic, and held his friends in higher regard than he probably should. A promise he couldn't keep must have had a significant negative effect on him.

He couldn't even imagine how the idiot would react if he had broken one of his precious promises. But as cruel as it was, Sasuke was happy his student had the experience. The idiot was an idealistic fool, and the only reason he survived so long in the Shinobi world were his genetics and his burden. Anyone else would have died long ago.

He wouldn't try to mold him into himself, no one deserved that. But Sasuke would make sure he understood the world he lived in.

A groan from the couch brought Sasuke from his thoughts.

"Cookies…" Was his elegant request.

Sally sighed and sat him upright, placing a plate of cookies in his lap as he demolished them.

Sasuke pinched his brow.

He wasn't training just any idiot.

He was training someone like the Idiot.

"Why are you so angry?"

The soft voice broke Sasuke from his brooding, and he looked down into his cloak where the daughter of death was sitting comfortably.

"I'm not angry." He lied. He had been trying to find the Goddess for a few hours now, flying over cities and grasslands, searching high and low.

"You're making angry noises."

Sasuke resisted the urge to sigh, which would only further prove her point.

"Why are you angry?"

Breathe in, breathe out.

"I'm looking for someone."

"Who?"

"Artemis." He said a little more forcefully, growing annoyed with the questions.

Lilith said nothing more, retreating back into his cloak.

Sasuke redirected his efforts towards the search. It had been about 3 days since their meeting, and his most reliable method of tracking her was with his Rinnegan. She could see traces of her power scattered throughout the land, and he followed its more concentrated trails.

However the trails had suddenly run cold, as if she'd just teleported her and all of her huntresses away at random intervals. And Sasuke had no way of tracking that.

"Have you ever found her before?"

Sasuke blinked at the question before staring at the mark of power on his left palm. He knew that it had some connection to her, but he had no idea what it did or how to use it. But he supposed it was his best shot.

With his palm facing towards him, he began to funnel his massive reserves of chakra into the mark. Then, like a dam bursting, a myriad of images, sounds, and emotions rushed into his head. He heard screams of pain, battlecries, steel against flesh. He saw children battling monsters, and in the center of it all…

Sasuke dropped to one knee, the sensation grinding to a halt as he severed the chakra flow to the mark.

"Are you okay?" Still panting, he looked down to find her staring at him, only her eyes betraying any semblance of emotion.

"Yes, I found Artemis." He rose again, staring at the mark on his hand.

Lilith tilted her head to the side. "Where is she?"

Sasuke ignored her, instead closing his eyes and funneling chakra into the mark once more, this time much less and much slower. After half of a minute he began to hear the faint sounds of battle and some blurry images.

"Artemis."

He waited for a response, and none came.

"Artemis" He thought.

He waited once more, and still received nothing.

He began to funnel more chakra into hi-

"SASUKE!"

Sasuke cringed as the much too loud voice of the Moon Goddess reverberated through his head.

"Can you hear me?" She asked, sounding winded.

"Yes."

He heard her let out a breath of relief the sound of steel clashing interrupted her next sentence.

"Where are you." He mentally asked.

"A forest in Sacramento, we have been chased by an army for the past 48 hours." She managed, breathing hard and grunting in exertion. "We've already suffered a few casualties and even more are being held prisoner, it won't be long before we're overrun."

From what he could tell, she seemed far away, too far to make it to the fight in a reasonable time.

"What did you do the first time I found you?"

"What?!"

"You summoned me somehow, whatever it is that you did you need to do it again."

The sounds of battle intensified. "I don't know!" She growled. "You appeared when I was under great stress and this situation is similar, yet you aren't being forced to come here.

'She had tried and failed to connect with me before.' Sasuke noted. 'What would the difference between than and now be?'

"I can still hear you." She drawled out as best she could while in battle.

"What were you thinking of under the mountain?" He asked.

"How to escape." She said through grit teeth.

"There has to be more." He thought back, equally impatient.

They thought in silence, one fighting tooth and nail while the other brooded.

Sasuke's eyes widened in realization, it had been so obvious.

"The moon."

"The moon."

Artemis was given a reprieve from the battle as she jumped back, unfortunately allowing the monsters to regroup. Her hunters were farther behind, launching whatever arrows they managed to scavance from corpses and firing them into the seemingly never ending legion that stood before them.

She didn't have time to ponder things, she closed her eyes and planted the image of her power, her chariot, her symbol, the moon in the forefront of her mind.

Then as if on queue, there was a tug at her mind, however she tugged back harder, but before she could finish, she was forced again to jump back to avoid a slash, breaking her concentration.

"Moon Goddess." A voice called, as the horde of monsters parted, the last thing she expected to see strode up the middle.

"Manticore…" She growled, remembering the one her hunters had killed just a few weeks prior.

"We need not continue this pointless fight, we ask only for Zoe Nightshade." He explained. "If you refuse, we will still have our way, the only difference is the lives of the rest of your Hunters."

Artemis's silver eyes glowed with power as she had to stop herself from calling on her divine form, lest she endanger what remains of her hunters.

Before she could respond, one of her oldest and most faithful, Phoebe, spoke up first.

"We'd never leave one of our own behind! We'll kill all of you first!" The rest of her hunters roared in approval, despite their heavy fatigue and injuries.

Artemis smiled softly at her hunters before turning to face the lead monster with a brutal scowl.

The manticore sighed. "Your courage is commendable, but it will not change the outcome of this battle."

With the wave of his hand, horns sounded from all throughout the sea of monsters, signaling them to charge at the Goddess and her followers, who prepared for their last stand.

Only for the monsters to stop to a grinding halt when the air began to distort in front of the Goddess. It swirled and twirled, a black vortex opening up in the middle, and a lone figure dropped out from it, standing up straight and surveying the immediate area.

Sasuke glanced back at Artemis and the hunters, who were battered and exhausted, covered in cuts and dirt from battling for the last few days.

"Is there anyone I need to spare?" Sasuke asked mentally, staring pointedly at the Goddess.

Artemis hesitated. "Spare the manticore." An image of a lion looking creature popped into his head. "He knows where the rest of my Hunters are being kept."

Sasuke nodded and turned to face the horde of monsters who were charing once again, and closed his eyes in concentration.

He found a hint of irony in facing an oncoming army by himself, remembering his predecessor battling an army in the previous Great Ninja War.

Sasuke closed his eyes and focused, remembering the technique of Indra's last incarnate.

"Katon: (Fire Release:)…" His voice was drowned out by the sound of war cries and footsteps. His eyes snapped open, glowing an ethereal shade of purple and red.

"Goka Mekkyaku! (Majestic Destroyer Flame!)"

First and foremost I apologize for the ridiculous wait, if you didn't know already college is literally absorbing my life force. If I lost a year off my life every time I was supposed to write and had to go do something else I would have died in 1794. But I'm both single and have a lot more motivation to write, so you can expect more frequent updates going forward. Also, sorry for the short ass chapter, I've been in a slump and just needed to get something out, I promise they'll be longer in the future, or at the very least more frequent. Thanks for the patience and the support, leave any suggestions, comments, or criticisms in the reviews.